Earlier this year, the Council put aside £30,000 to develop pilot schemes to make routes to school safer and a further £10,000 to support Walking Bus schemes which allow children to walk to school safely in a group with adult volunteers.
Dudley Infants, Elphinstone and Castledown Schools all now have 20mph zones outside their gates and work on new 20mph zones is to be completed soon at St Pauls and Little Ridge. The schemes have been introduced using traffic calming measure and will slow traffic down, making it safer for pupils.
The Council has been working with the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) to produce a report and action plan. TRL interviewed 2,200 pupils at the schools to find out how they travelled to school, how they would prefer to travel and also looked at safety issues including congestion around school gates.
The Safer Routes to Schools programme will pave the way for children to walk to school safely, improve health and fitness levels, encourage pupils and parents to use public transport or bicycles on school runs, reduce pollution levels and create a better environment.
At the time of going to print, a draft report had been put together to present to the Traffic Sub Committee which has responsibility for deciding all traffic schemes in the town.
Councillor Paul Silverson, Cabinet Member responsible for Transport, said:
We are determined to make routes to schools safer to protect pupils and have taken a positive step towards that by the introduction of 20mph zones outside five of our schools. Now, we want to take that one step further by working with pupils, parents and local residents to create walking bus schemes and make further physical improvements on routes to schools."
Click here to download a summary of questionnaire results from local schools.
Help on Downloading Information
More information is available from the Transport Planning Officer at Hastings Borough Council on 783322.
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This page last updated: 15/10/2001